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Carroll College Functioning?
tby Jim Senkler
In order to be fair to the
College Council I will
review the actions of tee
Council based on the
minutes. In order to be fair
to myself I wttl present my
opinions about the Council.
Fact: Since the end of
the spring semester 75 thej
CoUege CouncU has met six]
times. During our two1
summer meetings we
reviewed the jurisdiction,
of visitation poUcy based I
on the recommendation oft
the ad hoc committee on
the resident handbook. The
result was a decision to
give the Dean of Students
and hut staff jurisdiction
over all the particulars of
visitation policy. This was,
subsequently overturned
by the Board of Trustees
In December 1975 tee
CoUege CouncU deckled to>
have the various college/'
committees which are
responsible to the College
Council report to the CouncU on a yearly basis. In October 76 a proposal to es-
tablish a schedule and outlining guidelines for the
reports was presented. The
proposal was defeated. As
a result the heads of the
college committees have
been invited to the next
Council meeting in
January to discuss a
reporting system, v
Other items discussed include possible rotation of
administrative members
Gregory Baam hi favor of women priests—page *
of the CouncU, support of
the Towb Meeeting, a housing proposal, future enrollment projections, and
CouncU support of efforts
of students to establish and
maintain their rights to
make decisions for
themselves. No* policy
decisions were made on
these items.
Opinion: The Constitution of the College Council
states, ''Uhder the CarroU
CoUege Board of Trustees,
the CoUege Council is the
center of poUcy making at
CarroU CoUege, . . ." The
CoUege CouncU is not the
center of policy making. It
does not have the respect
of. the administration, the
faculty or the students. I
think this is due to the opinion of several of the CouncU members who believe
the.students, and possibly
faculty, should not be involved in policy making for
CarroU CoUege. As a result
they oppose efforts of the
Council to assert itself as
the center of policy making.
A prime example is the
lack of action on the decision made in December
1975 to hold college committees responsible to the
CouncU. After delays and
defeats of proposals we are
just now inviting committee heads to discuss
implementation of the
decision. Another example
is the frequent absence of
Council members except
When they think they wUl
have to vote against any attempt of the CouncU to assert itsett.
As a result we have pop-
licy decisions being made
by individuals and not the
community. Remember th
temporary dicision to
refuse the Montana New
Socialist Party permission
to collect signatures on a
petition?
The College Council is the
only group at Carroll College which represents the
administration, the faculty,
and the students equally
with the authority to review
and make major decisions.
It is time the Carroll Community demand that the
College CouncU live up to
its responsibilities as the
center of policy making. I
urge you to' contact the
Council members and let
them know that irresponsibility on the part of the
CoUege Council is no longer
acceptable.
The College Council
(Continued on page 6)
Vol 2 No. 7..
Tuesday, December 7,1976
The Tumbleweed
CARROU. COUEGE ""*'C
Helena, Montana
-
Nursing Department Under Fire
By Bette Wingenbach
Overhearing comments on the Nursing Department, and feeling the frustrations and bitterness coming from nursing students, I decided to do a story on it.
I talked to some seniors, by phone and in person, and
not one would grant me an interview in person or let
me use their name. I began getting more and more intrigued by this subject, even being approached by
nursing students asking me not to run a story. When
asked why, I got comments Uke, "It would break the
trust that's just starting to build ... Just One more
semester — all we want to do is graduate and get out
of here... We can't even tell you what we're jeopardizing. Just that we are jeopardizing something. We're
trying right now to get some changes, and we're afraid
publishing something at this time will cause hard feelings among the faculty. Maybe next semester things
wiU get better." ■ . ;
I decided it would be good to talk to someone obviously in authority to get some facts, but Father
O'DonneU, the Academic Dean, refused me an interview. He didn't want to say anything right now
because of certain responsibUities to the department.
He said he didn't care to go public at this time.
Dr. Therese Sulivan, the head of the Nursing
Department, did grant me an interview, as follows:
Q. Could you ten me some of the changes oaf have
come about since tbe program started four years ago?
A. I can't speak for tbe first two years in terms of
how the department was set up because I wasn't here.
I just came a year ago in September, and you see, at
that time they already had three classes of students
here. Then I came. Virginia was here and 4 other
faculty came. That was a year ago and there was just
one faculty member here. There had been others and
they had left, so at that time we came into a situation
where there already were three groups of students.
Since tjtat time we have been attempting to develop a
professional nursing program as well as conduct classes, itia,diffjc,u|tkJtob, to,sa,y,the.teastj^ ,,,,, t (
Q. I've heard that some of tbe seniors have expressed a lot of grievances. What is it they want to change,
and what is being done about?.
A. What really happened last year is we just picked
up some grumblings that the students had some concerns. The students never did bring those concerns to
us. Never. What we did is use the normative group
• process ... Two of our faculty members went in and
asked the students if they would write down their concerns, and then we would tabulate them and we would'
come back and give them responses to their concerns.
Because we have a real deep feeling if students have
things that they're concerned about that they really
should come and talk about them, but they did not do
that. We went to them. So as a result of that, I don't
happen to have the grievances with me, but most of the
things were concerned with the curriculum and why
we were doing particular things. I don't think the stu-
' dents really understood what tt was about in terms of a
professional nursing program. Most of them were very
concerned aboulT technical skills. Now technical skttls
are an important part of a professional program, but
only one part. Knowledge is a very big part of a professional nursing program, as well as problem-solving...
Q. I've also heard that some of tee nursing subjects
listed in the catalog weren't fulfUled as stated. Any
comments?
A. Well, I think it's important for you to understand
; that we didn't come until last year. So those things
were already written in the catalog before we came.
Now it's nice to set outa lot of things, but to implement
those things is something different. One of the Complaints was that we were not giving them specialized
kinds of experiences which were listed in the catalog.
Now that really isn't possible. Nor is that really part of
the professional program. Specialization is on the
Masters level. So we couldn't do anything about that.
We just can't provide them those kinds of experiences.
You see, with large groups of students —to put them
in an intensive care unit, weU, we only have two, St.
y, Peter'j^apaVy.A, WeJL th^,coukbt:t take more than 2
or 3 students at a time. And they're not willing to
provide that kind of experience. The thing that we
have done as a substitute for that is in the last 6 weeks
of tbe senior year the students have a nursing elective.
At that time those who would Uke to do that kind Of
thing, we are trying to make those kinds of arrangements for them. But we can't provide that for
everybody. See, part of the difficulty is we were not
here when the program first started. Now what these
students were promised, I really don't know. And they
all have very different ideas of what people told them
to begin with. And see, we weren't here. We can't do
anything about it. So, you know, I can understand their
feelings, too, in terms of maybe they were told different kinds of things. But as a faculty there isn't
anything we can do about that.
Q. Do the senior students know what they'll be doing
spring semester?
A. We're working on that right now. They have written their own objectives and almost all the objectives
that they have writtenhr their selections I think I'll be
able to accommodate. And we are having a meeting
final exam week to tell them.
Q. It wiU be finalized then?
A. Yes, and they're aware- of that; •
Q. No senior student would grant me an interview.
They felt they were risking something. Could you tell
me what it is they would be risking?
A. (Smiling) Gee, I don't have any idea. You'd have
to ask them ... I couldn't speak for teem. I have no
Idea:
Q. Do yoa know of any faculty that would withhold
recommendations or change grades because of
something a student said?
A. No. I don't think that has ever been done since
I've been here. As I say, the first two years I don't
know what happened to this group of students. I know
they have some feelings. But they're not really able to
express a lot of those things to you either, you know
One will say 'well, I was promised this,' and someone
(Continued on page 6)

These materials are primarily for scholarly and personal research. Their reproduction is governed by the fair use clause of the copyright act. Prior to any commercial use, written permission must be obtained from the Corette Library.

These materials are primarily for scholarly and personal research. Their reproduction is governed by the fair use clause of the copyright act. Prior to any commercial use, written permission must be obtained from the Corette Library.

Carroll College Functioning?
tby Jim Senkler
In order to be fair to the
College Council I will
review the actions of tee
Council based on the
minutes. In order to be fair
to myself I wttl present my
opinions about the Council.
Fact: Since the end of
the spring semester 75 thej
CoUege CouncU has met six]
times. During our two1
summer meetings we
reviewed the jurisdiction,
of visitation poUcy based I
on the recommendation oft
the ad hoc committee on
the resident handbook. The
result was a decision to
give the Dean of Students
and hut staff jurisdiction
over all the particulars of
visitation policy. This was,
subsequently overturned
by the Board of Trustees
In December 1975 tee
CoUege CouncU deckled to>
have the various college/'
committees which are
responsible to the College
Council report to the CouncU on a yearly basis. In October 76 a proposal to es-
tablish a schedule and outlining guidelines for the
reports was presented. The
proposal was defeated. As
a result the heads of the
college committees have
been invited to the next
Council meeting in
January to discuss a
reporting system, v
Other items discussed include possible rotation of
administrative members
Gregory Baam hi favor of women priests—page *
of the CouncU, support of
the Towb Meeeting, a housing proposal, future enrollment projections, and
CouncU support of efforts
of students to establish and
maintain their rights to
make decisions for
themselves. No* policy
decisions were made on
these items.
Opinion: The Constitution of the College Council
states, ''Uhder the CarroU
CoUege Board of Trustees,
the CoUege Council is the
center of poUcy making at
CarroU CoUege, . . ." The
CoUege CouncU is not the
center of policy making. It
does not have the respect
of. the administration, the
faculty or the students. I
think this is due to the opinion of several of the CouncU members who believe
the.students, and possibly
faculty, should not be involved in policy making for
CarroU CoUege. As a result
they oppose efforts of the
Council to assert itself as
the center of policy making.
A prime example is the
lack of action on the decision made in December
1975 to hold college committees responsible to the
CouncU. After delays and
defeats of proposals we are
just now inviting committee heads to discuss
implementation of the
decision. Another example
is the frequent absence of
Council members except
When they think they wUl
have to vote against any attempt of the CouncU to assert itsett.
As a result we have pop-
licy decisions being made
by individuals and not the
community. Remember th
temporary dicision to
refuse the Montana New
Socialist Party permission
to collect signatures on a
petition?
The College Council is the
only group at Carroll College which represents the
administration, the faculty,
and the students equally
with the authority to review
and make major decisions.
It is time the Carroll Community demand that the
College CouncU live up to
its responsibilities as the
center of policy making. I
urge you to' contact the
Council members and let
them know that irresponsibility on the part of the
CoUege Council is no longer
acceptable.
The College Council
(Continued on page 6)
Vol 2 No. 7..
Tuesday, December 7,1976
The Tumbleweed
CARROU. COUEGE ""*'C
Helena, Montana
-
Nursing Department Under Fire
By Bette Wingenbach
Overhearing comments on the Nursing Department, and feeling the frustrations and bitterness coming from nursing students, I decided to do a story on it.
I talked to some seniors, by phone and in person, and
not one would grant me an interview in person or let
me use their name. I began getting more and more intrigued by this subject, even being approached by
nursing students asking me not to run a story. When
asked why, I got comments Uke, "It would break the
trust that's just starting to build ... Just One more
semester — all we want to do is graduate and get out
of here... We can't even tell you what we're jeopardizing. Just that we are jeopardizing something. We're
trying right now to get some changes, and we're afraid
publishing something at this time will cause hard feelings among the faculty. Maybe next semester things
wiU get better." ■ . ;
I decided it would be good to talk to someone obviously in authority to get some facts, but Father
O'DonneU, the Academic Dean, refused me an interview. He didn't want to say anything right now
because of certain responsibUities to the department.
He said he didn't care to go public at this time.
Dr. Therese Sulivan, the head of the Nursing
Department, did grant me an interview, as follows:
Q. Could you ten me some of the changes oaf have
come about since tbe program started four years ago?
A. I can't speak for tbe first two years in terms of
how the department was set up because I wasn't here.
I just came a year ago in September, and you see, at
that time they already had three classes of students
here. Then I came. Virginia was here and 4 other
faculty came. That was a year ago and there was just
one faculty member here. There had been others and
they had left, so at that time we came into a situation
where there already were three groups of students.
Since tjtat time we have been attempting to develop a
professional nursing program as well as conduct classes, itia,diffjc,u|tkJtob, to,sa,y,the.teastj^ ,,,,, t (
Q. I've heard that some of tbe seniors have expressed a lot of grievances. What is it they want to change,
and what is being done about?.
A. What really happened last year is we just picked
up some grumblings that the students had some concerns. The students never did bring those concerns to
us. Never. What we did is use the normative group
• process ... Two of our faculty members went in and
asked the students if they would write down their concerns, and then we would tabulate them and we would'
come back and give them responses to their concerns.
Because we have a real deep feeling if students have
things that they're concerned about that they really
should come and talk about them, but they did not do
that. We went to them. So as a result of that, I don't
happen to have the grievances with me, but most of the
things were concerned with the curriculum and why
we were doing particular things. I don't think the stu-
' dents really understood what tt was about in terms of a
professional nursing program. Most of them were very
concerned aboulT technical skills. Now technical skttls
are an important part of a professional program, but
only one part. Knowledge is a very big part of a professional nursing program, as well as problem-solving...
Q. I've also heard that some of tee nursing subjects
listed in the catalog weren't fulfUled as stated. Any
comments?
A. Well, I think it's important for you to understand
; that we didn't come until last year. So those things
were already written in the catalog before we came.
Now it's nice to set outa lot of things, but to implement
those things is something different. One of the Complaints was that we were not giving them specialized
kinds of experiences which were listed in the catalog.
Now that really isn't possible. Nor is that really part of
the professional program. Specialization is on the
Masters level. So we couldn't do anything about that.
We just can't provide them those kinds of experiences.
You see, with large groups of students —to put them
in an intensive care unit, weU, we only have two, St.
y, Peter'j^apaVy.A, WeJL th^,coukbt:t take more than 2
or 3 students at a time. And they're not willing to
provide that kind of experience. The thing that we
have done as a substitute for that is in the last 6 weeks
of tbe senior year the students have a nursing elective.
At that time those who would Uke to do that kind Of
thing, we are trying to make those kinds of arrangements for them. But we can't provide that for
everybody. See, part of the difficulty is we were not
here when the program first started. Now what these
students were promised, I really don't know. And they
all have very different ideas of what people told them
to begin with. And see, we weren't here. We can't do
anything about it. So, you know, I can understand their
feelings, too, in terms of maybe they were told different kinds of things. But as a faculty there isn't
anything we can do about that.
Q. Do the senior students know what they'll be doing
spring semester?
A. We're working on that right now. They have written their own objectives and almost all the objectives
that they have writtenhr their selections I think I'll be
able to accommodate. And we are having a meeting
final exam week to tell them.
Q. It wiU be finalized then?
A. Yes, and they're aware- of that; •
Q. No senior student would grant me an interview.
They felt they were risking something. Could you tell
me what it is they would be risking?
A. (Smiling) Gee, I don't have any idea. You'd have
to ask them ... I couldn't speak for teem. I have no
Idea:
Q. Do yoa know of any faculty that would withhold
recommendations or change grades because of
something a student said?
A. No. I don't think that has ever been done since
I've been here. As I say, the first two years I don't
know what happened to this group of students. I know
they have some feelings. But they're not really able to
express a lot of those things to you either, you know
One will say 'well, I was promised this,' and someone
(Continued on page 6)